2011 performances

[ dec 29, 2011 ]Daniel Popsicle at the Berkeley Arts FestivalMore slightly odd music. Tackled the early parts of the New Monsters book at a festival that appears to be ceaseless, infinite, nearly, oh, how do you say acquisitive in its creative alignments, wherein if you happen to be walking by, singing, like, you know, a song you may well be caught in the gravitational pull of the Berkeley Arts Festival. That’s just my feeling. Played at the top of University Avenue (2133) right next to Ace Hardware, Berkeley.
[ audio | imagery ]

[ dec 10, 2011 ]Droneshift
Droneshift is a large scale collaborative music event organized by Matt Davignon. Over 40 musicians gathered to contribute to a continuous three-hour sound, each adding their acoustic or electronic elements, weaving their sounds together, or truly intending to, to create gradually shifting tapestries of music. At The Lab in San Francisco.
[ audio | imagery ]

[ nov 18, 2011 ]Dandelion DancetheaterRadical Inclusion: Conversations at the Intersection of Art, Spiritual Practice and Social Activism
Playing kit and kitchen with Bandelion as part of this evening benefiting Dandelion’s 2013 appearance in Edinburgh. The evening featured a conversation between Eric Kupers and Joe Goode, performance by Dandelion Dancetheater with Frank Shawl and dancing to live music by Bandelion at the Berkeley Hillside Club. Amazingly, I was able to set up the drums in the fireplace (which was not actually featuring a fire, thankfully). Resonant.

[ nov 5, 2011 ]Daniel Popsicle at the Berkeley Arts FestivalSlightly odd music. The ordinary themes that we hum while walking along, which come from the air and the ground of some everywhere that is El Cerrito, California, played at the top of University Avenue right next to Ace Hardware, Berkeley.
[ audio ]

[ oct 29, 2011 ]
She Mob at the 10th Annual Murder Ballads
That’s right, She Mob. Reconstituted by Karry Walker, the all-she She Mob drowned in its own emesis, but not before switching instruments between every song. With Joy (Sue Hutchinson) and Lisa McElroy, plus a cast of one million musicians singing songs of misery and despair at The Starry Plough. My costume was to dress as the reviled Black Bloc, which effectively made me disappear on stage, so I’d have to say it was really more of a Mummenschanz thing. So typical of me.
[ video ]

[ oct 13, 2011 ]Moe!kestra Piece No. 7: End of an Error
Playing two floor toms in Moe! Staiano’s large ensemble, which returned to the Luggage Store Gallery after a brutal hiatus during which Moe! made noises about shutting the Moe!kestra down for good.

[ sep 21, 2011 ]Daniel Popsicle / Dandelion Dancetheater
Drummed, and stopped to think, in the proto-monthly convening of ensembles led by Dan Plonsey and Eric Kupers who collaborated to create the 2010 Dan Plonsey’s Bar Mitzvah. The musicians and dancers and dancer-musicians and musician-dancers of Daniel Popsicle and D(B)andelion exploded new work at the Subterranean Art House in Berkeley, something I am almost ready to talk about, but included a hand emerging from the floor holding a music stand, an argument intended to be “real” which might have been… “real,” Michael Zelner’s childhood friend looking at us in horror, and a heart-breaking duet of Mantra Plonsey and Lynn Murdock that made me remember to ready for beauty in every single situation. Every single one.

[ sep 11, 2011 ]Daniel Popsicle at the Webster Street Jam
The last time I played in the Popsicle at the Webster Street Jam it was still called the Peanut Butter Jam in honor of Skippy Peanut Butter invented, you guessed it, in Alameda. Dan wrote a lengthy biography for that gig. Turns out a professional announcer would read it word-for-word as we sat, awe-struck, waiting to play. I remember the word “Saturn” mentioned more than once, and that little silence after the introduction was finished where we looked at eachother as if getting that guy to do that thing was performance enough, and maybe we should break down and go home. Later, a near-by shopkeeper ran out his front door screaming “That’s not music!” during Dan’s oboe solo.
[ audio ]

[ aug 17, 2011 ]Daniel Popsicle, Jeffrey Young & Paul Pinto [ThingNY] and DreamZoo
A night of banter-based musical performance and opera-in-progress originally thought to be presented by Daniel Popsicle, Paul Pinto and Jeffrey Young. However, Paul learned he had to cancel due to a family obligation back East, so Jeffrey offered to perform a solo set or, if possible, appear in Valerie Kuehne’sDream Zoo, which would have implicated Lucio Menegon, who had asked for the night off and Sean Ali, who had to be flown out from New York. Of course, I said, we’ll make it a Jeff Sandwich and compel him to play in all three bands because my guess was he kinda sorta knew how to read down the page. At the last minute, Paul’s East Coast obligation got shifted so it was again possible to present Jeff Young and Paul Pinto, Patriots, Run for Public Office on a Platform of Swift and Righteous Immigration Reform, Lots of Jobs, and a Healthy Environment: an Opera by Paul Pinto and Jeffry Young. Which we did and the people were transformed. Daniel Popsicle hosted, playing interstitial banter from disembodied recordings that completely confused the audience, especially when John Schott started bantering over it. Many early Daniel Popsicle pieces were revived in this performance, but since the music was never written for drum kit and I missed the only rehearsal Dan suggested perhaps I lay out. I tried. Then I started reading over John Shiurba’s shoulder and thought If I were a gamelan band, how would I be playing right now? Afterward, Dan mentioned he thought the drums actually worked pretty well. There you have it.
It all took place at the Subterranean Art House in Berkeley.
[ imagery | audio ]

[ jul 7, 2011 ]Bandelion at SPACEcraft’s 2nd Birthday
Playing The TomWaitsacator with the band component of Dandelion Dancetheater, helping SPACEcraft party like a bunch of toddlers with paintings, prints, photography, sculpture, music and performance. Bandelion collides live music and live dance/theater culture, which is to say I am learning to drum and jump at the same time. At Cellspace in San Francisco.

[ jun 23 & 26, 2011 ]The Line Between at Fury FactoryInkboat’swork-in-progress showings of the new piece slated for December 2011 at ODC (see currently). Jason Ditzian and I will be performing stripped-down versions of the score we’re composing for this piece (see below). At NOHSpace.

[ may 8, 2011 ]ReCardiacFly at SF <3 Tim Smith
A benefit performance for Tim Smith, leader and founder of the UK band Cardiacs with Moe! Staianoand members of Reconnaisance Fly. Also on the bill Dominique Leone, Wiener Kids, Inner Ear Brigrade, Grex, and Amy X Neuburg at Cafe du Nord, San Francisco.video

[ apr 20 – may 7, 2011 ]
CordeliaI composed for Theatre of Yugen’s new work Cordelia by Erik Ehn, a re-envisioning of King Lear’s daughter within a Noh phantasmal warrior play. It’s part of Soulographie, a series of 16 plays on the history of America in the 20th Century from the point of view of genocides in the States (the Tulsa Race Riot), in East Africa (Rwanda, Uganda), and Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador). Score performed by Polly Moller (flutes, chanter) and Anna Wray (piccolo snare, sruti box).

[apr 20, 2011]Daniel Popsicle at the Ivy Hoot
Drummed in Dan Plonsey’s large ensemble as it invaded the Ivy Room (for now) Noise Improv Hootenanny & Social Club with New Monsters music, special guests Randy McKean and Josh Smith, and interstitial DJing of classics and rareties by Sun Ra, Lee Scratch Perry, Charles Ives, Anthony Braxton and more

[ mar 10, 2011 ]Free Reed Vibrating Society
Part of Music in Motion: a series of explorations in sonic dimensionality curated by Bob Marsh with sound and movement by Laurie Amat,Cornelius Cardew Choir and the Free Reed Vibrating Society. Over 25 participants featuring voice, accordion, melodica, harmonica, and dance at the Luggage Store Gallery.

[ mar 4, 2011 ]sfSoundWindow :: House of Zoka
Beginning at 12:00:01am and ending at 11:59:59pm, the sound of life’s rich pageant as heard live from the windows of a converted box factory in Oakland via the interwebs.